Whilst we still have a couple of months left before the year is through, I thought now would be a good time to look back over what has been an incredibly challenging year for content marketers. Looking backwards is often a good place to start when it comes to predicting the challenges that lay ahead, so with 2014 on the horizon this article looks back at some of the biggest changes to happen this year and forwards, to speculate about what the future has in store.
To get a clearer idea of the future direction of content marketing, I posed a question over on Google+, asking fellow content marketers what they believed the coming months had in store. Their comments, together with my own thoughts form the basis of this article, in which I predict where the content marketing emphasis will be in the coming new year.
A Look Back at 2013
The biggest challenges this year for many came from Google in it's continuing war against web spam. Starting with the major Penguin refresh back in May 2013, followed by their stealth release of the brand new Hummingbird algorithm in early September 2013 which was swiftly followed by another Penguin refresh. Whilst most of these changes were targeted at spammers and SEO black-hatters, many reputable businesses were still affected.
Some of my own clients saw very small drops by 1 or 2 places in search results, but these loses were balanced out by gains for more long-tail keywords that they had previously not been ranking as well for. In a bid to provide ever more relevant search results, some of the tried and trusted techniques that SEOs had been using for years, were suddenly the very things harming websites, and in some cases causing Google penalties; manual actions taken against websites flagged for web spam.
Businesses slow to adapt to a content focused approach have
faced a harsh learning curve on the road back to recovery
faced a harsh learning curve on the road back to recovery
Whilst businesses making use of ethical SEO techniques felt little impact, the Google updates resulted in dramatically changing the SEO landscape. Businesses slow to adapt to a content focused approach have faced a harsh learning curve on the road back to recovery. Content marketers who have been focusing on producing high quality content and driving meaningful engagement however, have embraced, and largely benefited from the recent changes.
What's Next for Content Marketing and SEO?
This doesn't mean that it's all plain sailing however, and looking forwards, this increased focus on content will provide new challenges as more businesses invest in the area. Competition for those lucrative top spots in organic search results, is likely to increase further as more and more businesses adopt a content focused strategy. More competition in paid search too, means that budgets will need to increase in order to support the higher bids necessary to maintain visibility.
As social media reaches full maturity, so the techniques being used to
build and grow communities will need to be revised and sharpened in
order to rise above the hubbub
build and grow communities will need to be revised and sharpened in
order to rise above the hubbub
When it comes to social media, in order to rise above the high level of noise generated by increased adoption, boosting visibility will become even more crucial. Paid advertising, for example promoted posts and Facebook ads, will become increasingly necessary in order to reach customers. This means that companies who choose not to invest in this area and SMEs who simply don't have the resources, will gradually loose out to competitors with deeper pockets.
2014 - The Year of Big Brands or Creative Guerrilla Marketers?
The concern is that smaller businesses will loose out to big brands, who are more easily able to pay for greater visibility across social media. Organic activities will fail to reach a wide enough audience (Facebook story bump is a prime example of this) and will instead be buried under an avalanche of paid advertising and 'popular' content.
Google's way of addressing this is in part, Google Places/Google+ Local, which helps to provide greater visibility for location based business owners. Whilst Google Places/Google+ Local is undeniably useful for bricks and mortar businesses who want to be found in local searches, it is of little benefit to internet only businesses who service the whole of the UK and don't rely on location based searches. These are the kind of businesses that will struggle in terms of SERPs visibility, and may in fact be forced into using Paid search in order to compete.
In a recent straw poll, content marketers agreed that
greater competition will be a major challenge in 2014
greater competition will be a major challenge in 2014
Not convinced? Econsultancy.com recently reported that Google has been testing huge banner ads at the top of their search results page. This has the effect of pushing all other content way down the page giving unrivaled visibility to the brands big enough to be able to afford such exposure. Whilst I should stress that at the time of writing, these banner ads are just be trialed and are not widely available as an advertising option, their future introduction looks highly probable.
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